{
  "meta": {
    "slug": "the-cannibalization-rate",
    "name": "Vanguard Hardship Withdrawal Rate",
    "branded_name": "The Cannibalization Rate",
    "description": null,
    "source": "Vanguard How America Saves 2026",
    "source_credit": null,
    "source_url": "https://workplace.vanguard.com/insights-and-research/report/how-america-saves-2026.html",
    "frequency": "annual",
    "units": "percent",
    "fred_series_id": null,
    "fred_edge_series_id": null,
    "bls_series_id": null,
    "series_id": null,
    "measurement_basis": "Share of participants eligible for a hardship withdrawal who took at least one during the year, in Vanguard-recordkept defined contribution plans, from Vanguard's How America Saves. It counts participants who took a withdrawal rather than the number of withdrawals, and covers the plans Vanguard administers rather than all U.S. retirement savers.",
    "door": 3,
    "trend": "rising",
    "trend_suppressed": null,
    "series_breaks": [
      {
        "date": "2020-12-31",
        "reason": "Federal hardship-withdrawal rules that dropped the loan-first requirement and the six-month contribution suspension became mandatory for distributions from January 1, 2020, and Vanguard reports that more of its plans offered hardship withdrawals that year, so earlier years were measured under different rules and a different group of plans.",
        "source_url": "https://www.vanguardmexico.com/content/dam/intl/americas/documents/mexico/en/how-america-saves.pdf"
      }
    ],
    "direction": "higher_is_worse",
    "last_updated": "2026-09-24T00:00:00Z",
    "stale": false,
    "stale_reason": null,
    "data_status": "current",
    "page_url": "https://americandefault.org/indicators/the-cannibalization-rate/",
    "attribution": "American Default (americandefault.org) — Our analysis is free to use with attribution to American Default Research. Source data stays under each publisher's terms; cite the source named here."
  },
  "current": {
    "value": 6,
    "date": "2025-12-31"
  },
  "last_verified": null,
  "data": [
    {
      "date": "2019-12-31",
      "value": 2.3
    },
    {
      "date": "2020-12-31",
      "value": 2
    },
    {
      "date": "2021-12-31",
      "value": 2
    },
    {
      "date": "2022-12-31",
      "value": 3
    },
    {
      "date": "2023-12-31",
      "value": 4
    },
    {
      "date": "2024-12-31",
      "value": 5
    },
    {
      "date": "2025-12-31",
      "value": 6
    }
  ]
}